Other Rumblings

What's a #girlboss? Well, for starters, it's the name of a book by tech/fashion entrepreneur Sophia Amoruso, the CEO of online fashion site Nasty Gal.

Who's Jill Ford? A new star hire in Detroit entrepreneurism and the city's administration.

Ford is the city of Detroit's new head of entrepreneurship — she is not related to the family of Henry Ford.

Ford is Mayor Mike Duggan's latest high-profile catch. Earlier this year, he convinced Beth Niblock to come from Louisville, Ky., to be the city's CIO. This time, he mined Silicon Valley to find Ford.

Ford has a degree in computer science from Harvard University and an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

But it's what she's done outside of academia that excited Duggan. After graduation, she developed and funded new entrepreneurs in Ghana. She also has "intreprenuer" experience, heading up DisneyMobile's worldwide distribution to mobile manufacturers.

"She overheard some sort of conversation with some MIT students about teaching business development skills to people who live in Third World countries as a tool to get them out of poverty," said Bryan Barnhill, the city's chief talent officer. "So she started an organization in Ghana to teach people how to start businesses. It was so successful, she was recruited to Microsoft."

That led to a number of other corporate positions, but mostly she's been an angel investor in Silicon Valley. Now, she will be working to create an entrepreneurship program in Detroit, building out innovation districts and developing small businesses.